Midtown Lunch

The opening day of Go Go Curry on John St. (btw. Nassau & Broadway), the Japanese chain with more than 50 locations world wide, was a bit of a mess. I discovered when I got in line that they weren’t doing take out on Monday and you could only get the 55 cent deal if you had a good hour to wait to eat in the small space that has only a few tables and a counter along one wall. Instead, I went back on Tuesday when you could get your food to go, and to my surprise found you could get any medium size curry for $5 – a special running through Feb. 28. The staff was still working out some kinks, with a wait of about 20 minutes for food and a cash only policy, but after I finally got to eat my pork katsu curry, it was totally worth the confusion and waiting. 

If you’re not familiar with Go Go Curry, it’s a mecca both for those who love Japanese curry and those who love former Yankee Hideki Matsui (OK, and those who love shoveling Japanese curry down their throats in short amounts of time). The menu only has curry over rice with a few topping options which include katsu pork and chicken, fried shrimp and sausage. You can get all of these meats in a Grand Slam which at $12.50 is perhaps the most straight forward way of breaking the $10 mark here. You can get extra curry, or toppings like pickled onion or vegetables, egg or natto, and on certain days they give out free topping coupons.

This is a medium size (single, in the baseball speak that makes an appearance on the menu) pork katsu curry which is normally $7 but I got for $5. It’s not a ton of food, but should sate most normal lunchers’ hunger with a large piece of pork atop a cup or two of rice, some curry and a pile of cabbage that does little to atone for the fact that you’re eating meat and gravy. The pork was good – not too fatty, not too dry – and while I could have used a little more curry it had a great flavor that went back and forth between sweet, tangy and porky. Yes, the curry sauce contains pork, so if you’re a vegetarian, this is not the place for you.

I don’t know about you all, but I think between this, Mooncake Foods and Nicky’s Vietnamese Sandwiches we finally have a solid lineup of cheap spots for quality Asian food in the upper part of the Financial District. It’s about time!

Go Go Curry, 12 John St. (btw. Nassau & Broadway), (212) 730-5555, www.gogocurryusa-ny.com